Yugoslav Envoy In Chicago Tied To Spying

December 15, 1988|By Maurice Possley.

The Yugoslav consul general in Chicago provided diplomatic cover to two men, including an alleged high-ranking Yugoslav spy, who were smuggling to Yugoslavia documents and computer information stolen from U.S. Department of Defense contractors, according to U.S. Customs agents.

One of the two men, Vjekoslov Spanjol, a Yugoslavian-born U.S. citizen from Plano, Tex., was identified in a federal affidavit as the ``second in command of Yugoslavian Intelligence in the United States.``

The affidavit, prepared by Louise Hodess, an agent for the U.S. Customs Service, charges that Bahrudin Bijedic, the consul general in Chicago, provided diplomatic courier status that enabled Spanjol and Hubert F. Cole, of Carrollton, Tex., to smuggle the documents out of the U.S. under diplomatic seal, avoiding official inspection.

The documents and computer information were obtained from Department of Defense contractors in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and later smuggled to Yugoslavia, according to the affidavit.

Each of the contractors had one thing in common-all contracted with Maverick Building Services, a janitorial service operated by Spanjol, the affidavit said.

Federal law prohibits the delivery of information relating to the national defense to any foreign government or agent of a foreign government.

The affidavit was filed Dec. 1 under seal. On Wednesday, acting on a request made by the U.S. attorney`s office in Philadelphia, Chicago Assistant U.S. Atty. William J. Cook asked that the seal be lifted. U.S. Magistrate Elaine Bucklo granted the motion, allowing the case file to be open to the public.

Cook declined to comment on the contents of the affidavit. Efforts to reach Hodess were unsuccessful.

Bijedic, Cole, Spanjol and two other men were indicted Dec. 1 by a federal grand jury in Philadelphia on charges they engaged in a $1.5 million money-laundering scheme that smuggled $500,000 out of O`Hare International Aiport under diplomatic seal.

The indictment charged that the five men funneled $1.5 million to bank accounts controlled by an undercover U.S. Customs agent who was conducting a sting operation code-named ``Operation Flying Kite.`` Also indicted was a New York City bank.

The affidavit disclosed that Cole held several meetings with the undercover agent, which were secretly tape-recorded, and stated that he and Spanjol already were involved with laundering money in Yugoslavia for a ``drug dealer in San Antonio, Tex.``

Before being conferred diplomatic cover by Bijedic, Cole said he and Spanjol concealed the currency in their luggage, according to the affidavit. On June 21, 1988, Cole told the agent that he and Spanjol were obtaining

``large volumes of information`` from the contractors, the affidavit said. Cole said that employees of Spanjol`s janitorial firm, located in Richardson, Tex., obtained ``discarded documents from the contractors` trash,`` the affidavit said.

Cole`s responsibility, according to the affidavit, was to interpret computer documents so that Spanjol ``could determine their usefulness to the Yugoslavian government.``

Cole told the agent that he was using telephone numbers and access codes taken from the documents to ``obtain DOD (Department of Defense) information from computers`` operated by the contractors, the affidavit said.

The agent was told, the affidavit said, that ``they had so much material from DOD contractors that they were almost at the point that they would need diplomatic couriers going back and forth from Dallas to Yugoslavia.``

A search executed at the offices of Spanjol`s janitorial firm disclosed letters of complaint from at least one client-E.D.S. (Electronic Data Systems)-relating to ``security breaches in October and November, 1988 by Maverick employees,`` the affidavit said.

The breaches included ``thefts of papers and computer programs, propping open security doors to high-security areas of the company and leaving doors unlocked,`` the affidavit said.

During one of their money-laundering trips, the agent accompanied Spanjol and Cole and, during one brief moment, the agent was able to look inside Cole`s briefcase, the affidavit said.

Inside the case the agent saw corporate documents for fake or fictitious companies, ``blueprints relating to the transportation of restricted U.S. technology and equipment . . .,`` a passport in a phony name, an address book with ``code or cipher written in it,`` and code for an electronic mail box, which allows a person to leave messages in computers, the affidavit said.

Cole provided the agent of a copy of his courier credentials, signed by Bijedic, which identified him as ``Milutin Colovic, the affidavit said.

Cole also told the agent that on one of their trips, he and Spanjol had transported two sophisticated military underwater breathing devices, which were showed to ``intelligence and military contacts in Yugoslavia,`` the affidavit said.

The devices are on the U.S. government`s Munitions List, mandating that a government permit be obtained before taking them out of the country. No such permit was issued, the affidavit said.